1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to a mini coaxial cable connector having a relatively low profile.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
It is well known in the electrical connector field, particularly in the high frequency communication connector field, that metal shells can be widely used to enclose a dielectric housing and a plurality of contacts received in the housing for reducing the effects of external electromagnetic interference on the signal transmitted through the connector. There are many ways to connect the metal shell to a reference potential, such as to the earth. One way is to form several tabs on the metal shell which electrically connect to a grounding plate of the connector, which in turn electrically connect to the reference potential. The grounding tabs must provide an adequate normal force to ensure that free ends thereof reliably contact the grounding plate. In order to obtain adequate normal force, the metal shell is usually stamped and formed by first stamping a metal plate to get a flat shell and then by bending the flat shell to get a final shell. The final shell usually comprises a portion having two or more layers of plate stacked one above the other, which adds significantly to profile height of the connector. This is unacceptable for a mini cable connector, which must have only a very limited profile height. Hence, an improved low profile mini coaxial cable connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,582 issued Sep. 26, 2000 with the same inventor and the same assignee discloses the related art.